César Chávez could be said to be the most famous Latino figure in US history. He indirectly stepped into the gap left by the Mission Band and other civil rights advocacy groups silenced by Cold War ...
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César Chávez could be said to be the most famous Latino figure in US history. He indirectly stepped into the gap left by the Mission Band and other civil rights advocacy groups silenced by Cold War patriotism and the growing conflict in Vietnam. Like Father Martínez in New Mexico, Chávez drew inner strength and resolve from his Catholic faith and its popular traditions, symbols, and rhetoric. This chapter shows that Chávez was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil rights movement. His fasts and pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento were shaped by his reported deep mystical experiences with God. This chapter argues that we do not hear more about the spiritual dimension of Chávez's activism because the liberal intelligentsia have deliberately secularized his image to suit their own political and ideological goals.Less

The Mysticism and Social Action of César Chávez

Stephen R.
Lloyd-Moffett

Published in print: 2005-08-11

César Chávez could be said to be the most famous Latino figure in US history. He indirectly stepped into the gap left by the Mission Band and other civil rights advocacy groups silenced by Cold War patriotism and the growing conflict in Vietnam. Like Father Martínez in New Mexico, Chávez drew inner strength and resolve from his Catholic faith and its popular traditions, symbols, and rhetoric. This chapter shows that Chávez was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil rights movement. His fasts and pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento were shaped by his reported deep mystical experiences with God. This chapter argues that we do not hear more about the spiritual dimension of Chávez's activism because the liberal intelligentsia have deliberately secularized his image to suit their own political and ideological goals.

This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural ...
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This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor—a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a long-time movement organizer and scholar, the book illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. The book covers the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.Less

Why David Sometimes Wins : Leadership, Strategy and the Organization in the California Farm Worker Movement

Marshall Ganz

Published in print: 2009-05-07

This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor—a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a long-time movement organizer and scholar, the book illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. The book covers the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.

This chapter suggests that César Chávez quite intentionally manipulated, invented, and recast religious symbols to further his political and social aims. This is not to say that Chávez took a ...
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This chapter suggests that César Chávez quite intentionally manipulated, invented, and recast religious symbols to further his political and social aims. This is not to say that Chávez took a utilitarian view of religion. To the contrary, he was a deeply spiritual person whose long fasts, prayer vigils, and pilgrimages were as sincere as they were powerful. However, his religious identity was much more complex and riddled with more ambiguity than most realize. In many respects, Chávez functioned like a Weberian prophet who was able to “infuse” an ostensibly secular political struggle with ultimate value and sacred meaning.Less

César Chávez and Mexican American Civil Religion

LuíS D.
León

Published in print: 2005-08-11

This chapter suggests that César Chávez quite intentionally manipulated, invented, and recast religious symbols to further his political and social aims. This is not to say that Chávez took a utilitarian view of religion. To the contrary, he was a deeply spiritual person whose long fasts, prayer vigils, and pilgrimages were as sincere as they were powerful. However, his religious identity was much more complex and riddled with more ambiguity than most realize. In many respects, Chávez functioned like a Weberian prophet who was able to “infuse” an ostensibly secular political struggle with ultimate value and sacred meaning.

This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the ...
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This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the circumstances that led to the strike before discussing the strike in more detail. In particular, it analyzes the battle between Cesar Chavez's supporters, including farmworkers, and opponents as hundreds of incidents of violence erupted between the UFWOC and Teamsters Union during the strike's initial weeks. It also explores the various tactics employed by growers in response to the strike, the racial violence that erupted, the involvement of women such as Ethel Kennedy and Coretta Scott King, and the unprecedented cooperation seen between Mexican Americans and Mexicans.Less

A Blossoming of Red Flags : The Salinas UFWOC Strike of 1970

Lori A. Flores

Published in print: 2016-01-05

This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the circumstances that led to the strike before discussing the strike in more detail. In particular, it analyzes the battle between Cesar Chavez's supporters, including farmworkers, and opponents as hundreds of incidents of violence erupted between the UFWOC and Teamsters Union during the strike's initial weeks. It also explores the various tactics employed by growers in response to the strike, the racial violence that erupted, the involvement of women such as Ethel Kennedy and Coretta Scott King, and the unprecedented cooperation seen between Mexican Americans and Mexicans.

This chapter examines the farmworker movement in the Salinas Valley after the termination of the Bracero Program. It first considers the rise of Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers Organizing ...
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This chapter examines the farmworker movement in the Salinas Valley after the termination of the Bracero Program. It first considers the rise of Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) and the lawsuits filed by Salinas farmworkers with the help of the California Rural Legal Assistance. It then explores how the continued importation of braceros in what was supposed to be a post-bracero era affected Salinas's farmworkers, the majority of whom were Mexican Americans. It also discusses the legal actions and victories of Salinas farmworkers against growers who sought to continue importing braceros and prevent their employees from joining the UFWOC. These legal actions and victories, the chapter argues, were evidence of the farmworker movement's revival in the Salinas Valley.Less

The Farmworker Movement in the Post-Bracero Era

Lori A. Flores

Published in print: 2016-01-05

This chapter examines the farmworker movement in the Salinas Valley after the termination of the Bracero Program. It first considers the rise of Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) and the lawsuits filed by Salinas farmworkers with the help of the California Rural Legal Assistance. It then explores how the continued importation of braceros in what was supposed to be a post-bracero era affected Salinas's farmworkers, the majority of whom were Mexican Americans. It also discusses the legal actions and victories of Salinas farmworkers against growers who sought to continue importing braceros and prevent their employees from joining the UFWOC. These legal actions and victories, the chapter argues, were evidence of the farmworker movement's revival in the Salinas Valley.

Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican ...
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Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period. An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, this book offers crucial insights for today's ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.Less

Lori A Flores

Published in print: 2016-01-05

Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period. An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, this book offers crucial insights for today's ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.

This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. ...
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This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. The fate of the Chávez family farm illuminates some of the factors that shifted millions of acres in the Southwest from Mexican to Anglo hands in the second half of the nineteenth century.Less

Loss and Lettuce : The César Chávez Legacy

Steven W. Bender

Published in print: 2010-09-29

This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. The fate of the Chávez family farm illuminates some of the factors that shifted millions of acres in the Southwest from Mexican to Anglo hands in the second half of the nineteenth century.

This book presents sixteen chapters addressing important issues, personalities, and movements in Latino religions in America. The book's purpose is to overthrow the longstanding stereotype that ...
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This book presents sixteen chapters addressing important issues, personalities, and movements in Latino religions in America. The book's purpose is to overthrow the longstanding stereotype that Latinos are politically passive and that their churches have supported the status quo, failing to engage in or support that struggle for civil rights and social justice. Individual chapters explore such varied topics as “The Mysticism and Social Action of Cesar Chavez,” “The Challenges of Being Latina, Catholic, and Feminist,” “Hispanic Churches in Faith-Based Community Organizing,” and “The Mexican American Cultural Center and the Politics of Cultural Empowerment”.Less

Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States

Published in print: 2005-08-11

This book presents sixteen chapters addressing important issues, personalities, and movements in Latino religions in America. The book's purpose is to overthrow the longstanding stereotype that Latinos are politically passive and that their churches have supported the status quo, failing to engage in or support that struggle for civil rights and social justice. Individual chapters explore such varied topics as “The Mysticism and Social Action of Cesar Chavez,” “The Challenges of Being Latina, Catholic, and Feminist,” “Hispanic Churches in Faith-Based Community Organizing,” and “The Mexican American Cultural Center and the Politics of Cultural Empowerment”.

This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. ...
More

This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. The fate of the Chávez family farm illuminates some of the factors that shifted millions of acres in the Southwest from Mexican to Anglo hands in the second half of the nineteenth century.Less

1 Loss and Lettuce : The César Chávez Legacy

Steven W. Bender

Published in print: 2010-09-29

This chapter offers an account of the loss by César Chávez as a child of his family homestead as it fell victim to the Great Depression and the forces of lawyers, foreclosure, and economic struggle. The fate of the Chávez family farm illuminates some of the factors that shifted millions of acres in the Southwest from Mexican to Anglo hands in the second half of the nineteenth century.

This chapter examines the role of the mythohistorical in maintaining hegemonic consent and fostering counterhegemonic struggle. It considers how aggrieved social groups, those who lack access to the ...
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This chapter examines the role of the mythohistorical in maintaining hegemonic consent and fostering counterhegemonic struggle. It considers how aggrieved social groups, those who lack access to the means of production and communication, articulate their visions of the past. Drawing upon Marxist and anticolonial theories, it analyzes the relationship between cultural production and power within aggrieved social groups, with particular emphasis on how those who lack access to the means of production and communication are able to fashion and articulate counternarratives that undergird social struggle. It also looks at three case studies that represent divergent locations and strategies employed in the fight for intellectual power: César Chávez and the United Farm Workers, Rodolfo Gonzales and his nationalist epic I Am Joaquín, and the struggle for educational reform, as embodied in the book-length document El Plan de Santa Barbara. These case studies illustrate how aggrieved peoples may wield the mythohistorical in an often tenuous and uneven struggle for social, economic, and political power.Less

Locating the Mythohistorical : Three Tales in the Struggle for Hegemony

Lee Bebout

Published in print: 2011-04-29

This chapter examines the role of the mythohistorical in maintaining hegemonic consent and fostering counterhegemonic struggle. It considers how aggrieved social groups, those who lack access to the means of production and communication, articulate their visions of the past. Drawing upon Marxist and anticolonial theories, it analyzes the relationship between cultural production and power within aggrieved social groups, with particular emphasis on how those who lack access to the means of production and communication are able to fashion and articulate counternarratives that undergird social struggle. It also looks at three case studies that represent divergent locations and strategies employed in the fight for intellectual power: César Chávez and the United Farm Workers, Rodolfo Gonzales and his nationalist epic I Am Joaquín, and the struggle for educational reform, as embodied in the book-length document El Plan de Santa Barbara. These case studies illustrate how aggrieved peoples may wield the mythohistorical in an often tenuous and uneven struggle for social, economic, and political power.

This chapter begins with a telegram received by Cesar Chavez soon after his union won a breakthrough contract in 1966. The telegram was from Martin Luther King, Jr., lauding Chavez's victory through ...
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This chapter begins with a telegram received by Cesar Chavez soon after his union won a breakthrough contract in 1966. The telegram was from Martin Luther King, Jr., lauding Chavez's victory through perseverance. “Our separate struggles are really one—a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for humanity,” wrote King. “You and your valiant fellow workers have demonstrated your commitment to righting grievous wrongs forced upon exploited people. We are together with you in spirit and in determination that our dreams for a better tomorrow will be realized.” Chavez did not respond, perhaps because a contract with one grower, while important, simply represented just the first step for the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC).Less

First Experiments

Gordon K. Mantler

Published in print: 2013-02-25

This chapter begins with a telegram received by Cesar Chavez soon after his union won a breakthrough contract in 1966. The telegram was from Martin Luther King, Jr., lauding Chavez's victory through perseverance. “Our separate struggles are really one—a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for humanity,” wrote King. “You and your valiant fellow workers have demonstrated your commitment to righting grievous wrongs forced upon exploited people. We are together with you in spirit and in determination that our dreams for a better tomorrow will be realized.” Chavez did not respond, perhaps because a contract with one grower, while important, simply represented just the first step for the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC).

Chapter 4 continues the exploration of intense debate within Chicano Movement circles over the immigration issue through analysis of differing positions among Raza Sí, Migra No activists and Chicano ...
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Chapter 4 continues the exploration of intense debate within Chicano Movement circles over the immigration issue through analysis of differing positions among Raza Sí, Migra No activists and Chicano Democrats who were deeply influenced by the popular United Farm Workers (UFW). Beginning with the story of an early 1970s meeting where Herman Baca met UFW leader and emerging icon, César Chávez, the chapter outlines how the first encounter led to “heated” disagreement between Baca alongside his mentor Bert Corona, and Chávez over their relationship to undocumented workers. The manner through which Chicano/a immigrant rights activists debated these Chicano Democrats is explored through Baca’s debates with his former ally, San Diego Assemblyman Peter Chacón, over California legislation that sought to address the problem of undocumented immigration. This legislation, the Dixon Arnett Bill, was debated among Chicanos/as and others from 1970-1972 before, during and following its passage in 1971.Less

The First Time I Met César Chávez, I Got into an Argument with Him : California Employer Sanctions and Chicano Debates on Undocumented Workers

Jimmy Patiño

Published in print: 2017-11-13

Chapter 4 continues the exploration of intense debate within Chicano Movement circles over the immigration issue through analysis of differing positions among Raza Sí, Migra No activists and Chicano Democrats who were deeply influenced by the popular United Farm Workers (UFW). Beginning with the story of an early 1970s meeting where Herman Baca met UFW leader and emerging icon, César Chávez, the chapter outlines how the first encounter led to “heated” disagreement between Baca alongside his mentor Bert Corona, and Chávez over their relationship to undocumented workers. The manner through which Chicano/a immigrant rights activists debated these Chicano Democrats is explored through Baca’s debates with his former ally, San Diego Assemblyman Peter Chacón, over California legislation that sought to address the problem of undocumented immigration. This legislation, the Dixon Arnett Bill, was debated among Chicanos/as and others from 1970-1972 before, during and following its passage in 1971.

This chapter explores how Mexican Americans in Iowa supported the national boycott of California table grapes in the 1960s while concurrently fighting for the rights of Tejano migrant workers ...
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This chapter explores how Mexican Americans in Iowa supported the national boycott of California table grapes in the 1960s while concurrently fighting for the rights of Tejano migrant workers employed seasonally in Iowa’s agricultural industry. Their advocacy for legislative change through community-based coalitions illuminates the collaborative efforts of members of organizations such as migrant agencies, unions, and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in securing passage of Iowa’s first migrant worker legislation.Less

¡Viva La Causa! in Iowa

Janet Weaver

Published in print: 2017-06-15

This chapter explores how Mexican Americans in Iowa supported the national boycott of California table grapes in the 1960s while concurrently fighting for the rights of Tejano migrant workers employed seasonally in Iowa’s agricultural industry. Their advocacy for legislative change through community-based coalitions illuminates the collaborative efforts of members of organizations such as migrant agencies, unions, and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in securing passage of Iowa’s first migrant worker legislation.

The present-day Cesar Chavez Street Freeway Interchange that passes over the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco was once a place of productivity where life grew and roots deepened under the name ...
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The present-day Cesar Chavez Street Freeway Interchange that passes over the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco was once a place of productivity where life grew and roots deepened under the name Crossroads Community (The Farm). Founded in 1974, The Farm was one of the city’s earliest community cultural spaces organized around the ecological principles of living in harmony with nature. Distinctively, it brought together people, animals, plants, and educational resources, heralding a new form of ecological thinking in line with countercultural ideals of the period. This chapter discusses the three countercultural projects that The Farm drew on: the guerrilla theater of the San Francisco Diggers, the Los Angeles-based project Synapse Reality by Aviva Rahmani, and the Berkeley-based demonstration site, the Integral Urban House. It then details the events leading to the demise of The Farm in 1987.Less

The Farm by the Freeway

Jana Blankenship

Published in print: 2012-01-23

The present-day Cesar Chavez Street Freeway Interchange that passes over the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco was once a place of productivity where life grew and roots deepened under the name Crossroads Community (The Farm). Founded in 1974, The Farm was one of the city’s earliest community cultural spaces organized around the ecological principles of living in harmony with nature. Distinctively, it brought together people, animals, plants, and educational resources, heralding a new form of ecological thinking in line with countercultural ideals of the period. This chapter discusses the three countercultural projects that The Farm drew on: the guerrilla theater of the San Francisco Diggers, the Los Angeles-based project Synapse Reality by Aviva Rahmani, and the Berkeley-based demonstration site, the Integral Urban House. It then details the events leading to the demise of The Farm in 1987.